Playing the ‘Goodfellas’ card Mr. Rauner? Really?

Bruce Rauner’s campaign has a new parody ad comparing Bill Brady, Kirk Dillard, Dan Rutherford and Pat Quinn to the mobsters in Goodfellas.

That’s adorable.

It’s also interesting that Mr. Rauner would choose to go down that road because I’m certain I’m not the only one who immediately thought of a certain scene in that movie when the nursing home scandal came to light.

“And then finally . . . when there’s nothing left . . . when you can’t borrow another buck from the bank or buy another case of booze . . . you bust the joint out . . . you light a match.”

Mobsters aren’t the only people who engage in bust-out schemes. It happens in business too. Of course I doubt if any private equity firm actually “lights a match.” Instead they would probably lawyer-up, transfer remaining assets to new shell corporations, and generally try to frustrate all legal actions brought by victims of the bust-out scheme.

That’s pretty much exactly what the plaintiff is alleging against Rauner’s former private equity firm GTCR in Federal District Court right now. See for example paragraph 320 of the latest court filing: “Defendants, the Receiver, Tydings, GECC, GTCR, and Ventas did carry out their conspiracy by engaging in or otherwise participating in the conspiracy to seize the assets of former nursing home operators, conceal them in newly created entities, and leave behind empty shells for the purpose of defrauding the creditors of THI and THMI, including the Plaintiff.”

But I digress.

I normally would never play the mob card. But since Mr. Rauner has chosen to play that game, please enjoy this famous scene from Goodfellas (contains mature language).

Doug Ibendahl is a Chicago Attorney and a former General Counsel of the Illinois Republican Party.